We had big plans for today. We were going to visit the small coastal town of Otaru, and the continue onwards to visit the famous Nikka Whisky Distillery.

But then after breakfast Nick and Millie got sucked into watching the potentially-final World Series game. It was pouring and cold outside so we weren’t in a rush to get anywhere.

After the game was over at about Noon, we both agreed that the original itinerary of the day didn’t sound like fun. It would have been a lot of walking in the rain, and we don’t like Whisky enough to travel 1.5 hours to taste some. I did some last minute googling and came up with a couple of different options. There is a children’s puppet theatre and Millie chose that.

We took a taxi. I love the lace details in all Japanese taxis.

When we arrived I translated the sign and saw that the only show today was at 6pm instead of 2pm as the internet had told me. Whoops.

The park was stunning with bright fall colors. But cold and very, very rainy.

Next door to the puppet theatre was a children’s center. We had nothing better to do and decided to check it out. And then we ended up spending all afternoon there.

It was like a public library / recreation center. Everything was free and we just had to sign in. I assume this is because it gets so cold here, they need some indoor play areas.

There were shelves of very used yet very organized toys and games. Since we haven’t been able to carry many toys with us, Millie loved this. She kept pulling things down and playing with them. There were signs everywhere saying “NO SMARTPHONES”. Parents were in there playing with their kids. The floors were heated. It was very wholesome and cozy. I snuck some photos in between the playing.

Even the grownups found themselves deep in independent play. Nick spent over an hour playing Jenga by himself and trying to beat his record for how high he got the tower. I peacefully sorted the giant box of magnatiles into organized groupings.

Nick and I played a round of rummikub while Millie was deep in her imagination world with the above treehouse.

This was not a classic tourist experience, but such a relaxing afternoon. It’s the type of experience we can only have on a long trip like this, where “wasting” a rainy afternoon in a park rec center doesn’t matter.

I loved watching how the other kids and parents played. Nick and I discussed why we don’t have these at home. Is it lack of funding? Is it that kids would destroy everything? Or steal things? Is there a fear of liability? If this was in Austin, would it be overrun by wild kids?

We were there so long that it was dark when we left. Then again it gets dark at 4:30 here. We were starving. On our way to the subway station we passed some sort of street festival with food stalls. We decided to stop for a snack to hold us over until dinner.

We perused the stalls. The first one had roasted sweet potatoes. The second one also had sweet potatoes. The third one also had sweet potatoes. At the fourth one we realized we were in some sort of sweet potato festival and every stall was selling the same thing. Weird, but okay. We ordered three roasted sweet potatoes even though they didn’t look appetizing.

They served them whole with butter and salt on the side. We ducked into a tent and broke into them using our hands. After the first bite I realized why these tubers deserved a whole festival. There were so chewy and sweet and warming, like the perfect winter dessert. I could have eaten 5 more.

We hopped onto the subway and took it one stop to a Japanese curry place. We wanted something warming but couldn’t do ramen for a third night in a row. I liked it more than Nick, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. It was much more soupy. But still, did the trick. The maitake mushrooms on top were my favorite part.

We walked back to our hotel. With the early sunset it now feels like it’s 10pm even though it’s only 7.